Media centre

Friday 8 Dec 2023

Transpennine Route Upgrade Step-up to Safety

Region & Route:

Eastern: North & East

Wednesday 6 December saw the winter Safety Step Up Day, a quarterly event organised by TRU to enhance safety culture and foster a secure work environment across the Transpennine Route Upgrade. 

Hosted at the John Smith’s Stadium in Huddersfield, the event was centred around wellbeing and a focus on fatigue with 525 TRU colleagues coming together for a day of team building activities, workshops, exhibitions and guest speaker discussions, with plenty of networking opportunities. 

Ian Grainey, Health, Safety & Wellbeing Director Transpennine Route Upgrade said: 

“Staff safety and welfare is our priority so it was a great to have the opportunity yesterday, for us to talk openly about how fatigue can impact everyone.  It can be challenging for our teams to take time out of there day to reflect, especially in such a fast-paced environment like TRU, however it was great to see how involved everyone was and the conversations that started to develop. I want to say a big thanks to West Yorkshire Fire Service for their support on the day, and the fantastic demos they put on. It’s certainly something we’ll continue to do going forward.  

Our partnership with West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service meant that attendees got to see a live demonstration of a car cut – a process used to rescue people in a car accident – furthering efforts to provide support for all possible safety concerns across the industry. 

Chris Bell, Assistant District Commander for Kirklees West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service said:

“Winter can be a treacherous time of year with cold weather and darker mornings and evenings so it’s really important to spread key safety messages at events like this, and we’re pleased to be teaming up with our partners to promote safe driving practices. 

“All road users can follow simple tips to cut the risk of injury – don’t speed, don’t be careless, never drink or take drugs and drive, don’t use your phone, always wear a seatbelt and always be aware of weather conditions that could affect your stopping distance, especially in winter.” 

Safety and wellbeing sit at the heart of the TRU programme, making events such as the Safety Step Up Day essential.  

The event reinforced TRU’s commitment to workplace safety in what has been a milestone year for the project – the TRUST centre was also launched back in August, the first purpose-built rail safety centre of its kind in the North which everyone working on the multi-billion-pound programme must attend, taking part in a truly unique, interactive training day.